Don Krieg calmly threatening to murder everyone on the restaurant ship while casually walking out with the giant bag of food they just gave him is a terrifying evil. In cold blood, with clean calculation, he is determined to get his results without seeming enraged or boisterous. There is a true psychopathic vibe here beyond just a desperate pirate, but a truly dark soul committed to mayhem & harm.
We see yet another new look at reputation in this episode with the history of Zeff. He was a famous pirate and so there is a sense of respect for him, but he has lost the leg that made him fearsome, which affected his reputation via rumours. Word of mouth communication is much more important in this setting without easy digital or radio communications across long distances. The way people speak about you is less controllable, thus making it more valuable in a certain sense as it is less likely to be propaganda, but it can also be wildly inaccurate and just colloquial mambo jumbo.
I have noticed that characters often act in shock & surprise at wild & unbelievable stories without any sense of proof; there is a general trust between individuals that they simply won’t lie. Even when Usopp was telling very bold lies, people often believed it at first simply because of how much people trust each other. This is not blatant stupidity; there is a certain amount of survivability that relies on being able to trust information gathered from strangers when there isn’t a major news media or similar method of dissemination.
Sanji “helping them live and then threatening to kill them” is a great dichotomy that applies to a lot of stoic thinking. Sanji understands he can only control himself and his actions & wants them to be true to his ideals and values. Part of his value system is feeding anyone who needs to be fed, so it is understandable that he would even feed someone who could be a threat to his fellow crewmates. However, he also loves his ship & fellow crewmates, so he is still willing to use violence to protect them, even from the very same people whom he was willing to feed. We cannot control the actions of others and must react to them using our own values. Reacting to a hungry person by feeding them, as well as reacting to a threat with defensive violence, are both consistent with Sanji’s ideals.
I am genuinely surprised Nami “stole” the ship and can only assume the 2 boys are unreliable narrators who misunderstood what she told them. I am guessing she plans to come back shortly, and only left because she knew Luffy was going to stay a while to work for Zeff. Last note, I really want three dangly earrings like Zoro, super cool vibe.